Saturday, March 2, 2013

SINGING THE CCSS!


Take a look at my March, 2013, website post and you’ll get tons of ideas for tying music into Common Core State Standards.  You’ll even find a free download for a song called “In the Woods There Was a Tree.”  It’s a silly narrative song, but one my students always enjoyed.


Narrative songs are songs that tell a story.  The lyrics provide the opportunity for children to recall details and sequence, and they also make great class books!
1st – Sing the song several times so the children are familiar with it.
2nd – Who are the characters in the song?  What is the setting?  What happened first?  Next?  Then?  Last?
3rd -  Ask the children to close their eyes as you sing and make pictures in their brains.
4th  – Give them paper, crayons, markers, or paint to illustrate a picture from the song.
5th – Enlarge the words to the song, cut them apart, and glue them to pages where they seem most appropriate.
6th – Add a page for “Illustrators” where the children can sign their names.  Encourage them to “dedicate” the book and add the publisher (school, class, city, state) and copyright date.  Put their pictures together, add a front and back cover, and bind. 
*Use the book for choral singing.
*Place the book in the listening center.
*Let a different child take the book home each evening to share with their families.
*Put the book in the school library so other classes can check it out.
Standards: 
RL 1, 2, 3
RL 6

RF 4
W 3
SL 1, 2, 5

I was in Little Rock and Memphis this past week, and I’ve got some super duper ideas to share with you.  However, I need to get on the road to a conference in Lake City, Florida, so you’ll have to wait until I get home in a few days.